welcome email best practices silverpop
DESCRIPTION
Overview of why welcome emails are important; key elements of welcome emails; samples of good and bad welcome emails; best practices; and samples of welcome seriesTRANSCRIPT
Using Welcome Emails to Drive Increased Engagement and ROI
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Contents
Why Welcome Emails?
Elements of a Welcome Email Program
Sample (Good & Bad) Welcome Emails & Best Practices
Welcome Series
REI 12-Part Welcome Series
Why Welcome Emails?
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List Churn and Inactives – The Good, Bad and So-So
The bad news…
A typical list will lose 1/3 of its
members each year
Bounces + spam complaints +
unsubscribes = 2-4% / month
25% to 80% of your list is
inactive
Subscriber has not opened or
clicked in specific time frame
(e.g., 6, 12 months+)
The good news…
• Churn can be reduced
• You control most of your destiny
• Some inactives can be reengaged
The so-so news…
Most are lost
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Research by marketing publisher MarketingSherpa
shows email subscriber interest begins to disintegrate as soon
as two weeks after the opt-in, as measured by the open rate.
Within two months, the open rate typically falls 20% to 25%.
The Honeymoon is over!
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Why Recipients Unsubscribe
-Too Frequent- Irrelevant
Content/Offers
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Welcome Email – eec Retail Research Study
72% of major online retailers send out welcome emails.
98% of retailers’ welcome email now contain a link to their shopping site
32% of welcome emails include a discount, reward or incentive
62% of welcome emails asked the subscriber to whitelist them
79% of retailers sent out HTML welcome emails Most of the HTML welcome emails were HTML “lite,” making extensive use of HTML
text
53% of welcome emails included links to the retailer’s privacy policy
58% of welcome emails were CAN-SPAM compliant in terms of including both a mailing address and unsubscribe method
*Email Experience Council’s second annual Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study (2007)
Elements of a Welcome Email Program
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Opt-in form
DOI Confirmation Email
Welcome Email or Series
Regular Email Program
Subscriber Email Touch Progression
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Engage and Delight…Every Step of the Way
Dating Build trust with transparency Preferences on opt-in
Engagement Welcome programs Bring the flowers
Marriage Deliver on expectations Preference updates Move to lifecycle, trigger and behavioral-based programs
Divorce Provide alternatives to unsubscribing
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Goals and Purpose
Goals:
Speed up conversion
Minimize list churn
Strengthen brand perception
Reduce inactivity
Purpose
Educate subscriber
Reward/Incent
Instill/reinforce trust
Enable immediate “email experience”
Provide administrative information
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Timing
The Good News
61% of retailers deliver their welcome emails within 10 minutes of sign up, with most of
those delivering within 3 minutes.*
The Bad News
19% take more than 24 hours to deliver their welcome emails, with nearly a third of those
taking more than a week to deliver.*
*Email Experience Council’s second annual Retail Welcome Email Benchmark Study (2007)
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From Name/Address
From Names: Use the same from name as regular emails Simple, logical and trusted brand
From Name/Address Again, use same as regular emails Avoid ugly, number-oriented if possible
Good Examples: Olive Garden [[email protected]] MBNA America [[email protected]] Magazines.com [[email protected]]
Questionable Example: Penny at MarketingProfs [[email protected]] [email protected]
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Subject Lines
Good/OKWelcome to Fetchdog! Take 10% Off Your Next Order
Branded
Immediate value proposition
Welcome to Art.com - Take 20% Off Today
Branded
Immediate value proposition
Welcome to Sear.com Email Savings!
Email program is branded
Implied value proposition
Not So GoodWelcome
No branding
No mention of email program
No value proposition
Thank you for signing up! Signing up for what?
No branding
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Email address added
Add to address book
Privacy assurance and link
Link/instructions on how to change preferences
How to get started
When the first email will arrive
Resources, key links
“Your gift” incentive
Unsubscribe link
Reinforce value proposition
Upsell
Call to action/”offer”
Welcome Content Checklist
Sample (Good & Bad) Welcome Emails & Best Practices
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Confirmation Emails – Are Not “Welcome Emails”
• Primary Purpose is to confirm subscription
• They aren’t a subscriber yet
• Pre-selling and reminding of value proposition is good, but should not take the place of welcome email; or distract from confirmation action
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Net a Porter: 3-Step Sign-Up/Confirmation Process
1. Opt-in form with minimal (but key) information requested
2. Double opt-in confirmation email
3. Further information collected on confirmation page for additional targeting
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Net-a-Porter: Double Opt-in Confirmation Email
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Net a Porter: DOI Confirmation Page – Collect Additional Data
Value proposition
Resources
Welcome – 4-parts will follow
Login immediately
Tips andcommunity
FAQSupport contact
Overview
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MarketingProfs: Manages Expectations/Transparent
ValueProposition
Key text navigation links
Administrative text links
Shopping link
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Sears: Works Pretty Well Even With Block Images
However, mostcritical shoppinglink is image only – should also be text link
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Toys-R-Us: Disaster With Images Blocked
Top of
Middleof
Bottomof
Best Practices Followed: Re-iterates benefits of signing up Set expectations on when first email would be received (though vague) Asked to be added to Address Book Link to privacy policy HTML to convey brand image Sent within 24 hours of registering Primary message is view-able in an images off environment
Welcome Email – Betty Crocker
Confirmation/Welcome email received when registering for their website
Cross promotes their newsletters in case you didn’t sign up when you registered for the website
Great use of imageryCouponsStar RatingsRecipe Box
Best Practices Followed:Primary message is view-able in an images off environment Email comes from Betty Crocker (From Address). Includes personalization (first name)
Good:
Driving immediate engagement with Infiniti by providing key calls to action on the red buttons
Needs to Improve: The entire main body of the email is an image
Need a mix of text and HTML to optimize visibility in email clients and deliverability
Welcome Series
Think Series, Not Just a Single Welcome Email
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Welcome 1 - Overview
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Welcome 2 – Getting Started
Preferencesreminder
ReinforceBenefits
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REI 12-Part Welcome Series(Courtesy Smith-Harmonwww.smith-harmon.com)
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Takeaways
Take baby steps
Test subject lines
Redesign for preview pane and blocked images Test layout, use of images, HTML
Incorporate additional welcome content
Monitor open, clicks and conversions for recipients of Welcome messages – impact on overall response rates
Expand from a single welcome email to welcome program
Continuously test
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Q & A
Follow Me Twitter
• @LorenMcDonald
Columnist
• Media Post - Email Insider
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• Many others…
Blogs
• Silverpop – “Tales”
• http://marketing-suite.silverpop.com/loren-mcdonald.html
Contact: Loren McDonald
www.silverpop.com